Karma has a way of fucking you up. Goku leaves Japan just in time to watch the economy continue to collapse from somewhere else. He has no intentions of going back, but he does anyway. He definitely doesn't plan to end up in Yokohama, but that's where he is.

The part of town he's in is still dirty and still looks like the wrong end of an urban renewal project from the 60's. He's hungry, but a ramen stand is easy enough to find and that takes the edge of. Lately Goku is starting to wonder if hunger is ever something that actually goes away- all the way away, but he tries not to think about that too much on grounds of pointlessness.

Goku is just finishing his ramen when he hears gunshots. He doesn't look up and neither does anyone else, which tells him that this really is a bad neighborhood and that this country has fallen some in the last years. Goku shrugs, pays and wanders outside. It isn't like there's anything a human bullet can do to him.

Goku realizes his karma must still be a mess when he turns into an alley and sees the boy with Hakkai's face, back pressed to a wall and gun slung in his hand with careless ease. It's got to be the same boy he met six years ago- the age is right, and how many of them can there be? With eyes like the dead and a tiny, empty smile hanging on like a mask of politeness over a pool of ooze.

He's grown tall, the boy, taller then Hakkai ever was. Taller than Goku, even taller than Gojyo had been. He must loom like a basketball player in a place like Japan. He doesn't move like one, though. Fast and dancer graceful and hit man deadly, and just now he's the only one left in the alley and the stink of blood and guts is starting to mix with dumpster trash. He moves like Hakkai, but unapologetically. He still looks too fucking much like Hakkai and that's what Goku, who ought to be smarter by now, but isn't, can't get over. It makes him freeze and stare at something he really should just walk on past.

Then again Goku's never been the walking on by type. Which is probably why he suddenly has the warm end of a gun pressed inches away from his forehead and considering brown eyes watching him. The boy is still smiling. How old is he again? Not even close to old enough.

"You look lost," the boy says. A black coat swirls around his hips and he's dressed in a white shirt and slacks underneath, like part of a school uniform. He looks the right age for one. Goku wonders why he hasn't fired yet, what's he waiting for. He can't mean to leave witnesses, he moves like a professional, not a random mass murderer.

"I'm not. Lost," Goku replies, staring back, as fearlessly as someone who knows a bullet won't kill him and may not care much if it could.

The boy tilts his chin and presses the gun against skin. Hot. It feels hot. Goku doesn't flinch. "Who are you? Chinese? Triads? It's only polite to warn you I'm in a bad mood today."

Goku can't help it. He laughs. Bad mood. Fuck, yeah. Definitely. There's blood painting the alley walls and a powder warm gun against his forehead. And what really, really weirds him out is that the boy who made it all happen is laughing with him. Just like that, like he sees the irony of being polite too. Hakkai would have seen it. Hakkai was always polite.

"No. I'm not with the triads," Goku says, still hiccuping on laughter. "And you? Yakuza?" He doesn't have any visible tattoos, but he doesn't have any visible skin anyway. Goku isn't the least surprised that the little boy he met here could end up like this, but he wishes he were. It just plain sucks.

The boy shrugs, but he's still smiling. Like he still gets the joke even if Goku doesn't find it funny anymore. "Hai, hai. I was with Izumokai. But not after today."

Goku backs up, just a tiny bit away from the gun, but not far enough it wouldn't shatter his skull if he were human. He looks down at the bodies. They look like typical punks. Boring. "They'd object to this?" he asks.

The boy laughs again. "Not really. I'm just tired of them. I've already beaten all their video games anyway." His eyes widen for a moment. "I remember you. Golden eyes, right? Wow... it has been a long time."

For just a second Goku is sure that the boy is talking about before, way before. Because he looks like Hakkai, shit, he even sounds like Hakkai and if he could be Hakkai that would mean that he was here. Hakkai was here and the others might be here... might be- Sanzo. Goku's stomach sags when he realizes that the kid is only talking about the last time in Yokohama and for a moment he feels too disappointed to be hungry.

"Yeah," he says. "So, you grew up to be the violent type, huh?"

"Mhmm. Sure." There's still a gun pointed right at Goku and he wonders if he can actually talk to this boy like this and still get shot afterwards. Probably. Except then, just like that the gun is lowered and the boy is sliding it away. There's just a flash of lean, smooth skin and it's gone under swirls of coat.

"I'll trust you not to run to the cops," the boy says, still all smiles. Goku wonders if Hakkai used to be this full of rage under his smiles too and he was just too oblivious to notice. "Though I suppose you can go if you want. They're all dirty anyway and if I get the one good one I probably deserve to get caught."

Goku blinks and his fingers fist in his coat pocket. For some reason he just wants to hit the kid for being so- so not Hakkai. For possibly being more like Hakkai then Goku needed to think about, like, ever. He has to stop thinking of this boy as Hakkai. Not Hakkai.

"Are you still looking for someone to talk to?" he asks suddenly. That was what the boy had been looking for last time, right?

"Still? Oh. No. Not really. There was a person, but well-" The boy gestured peremptorily at the bodies and Goku wondered if these guys had killed that person or the boy had himself. "Actually, I'm not very good at talking to people. It's not so interesting. Sorry."

He smiles and bows as if he really were sorry. Except there are sprays of blood over his bright white shirt and he doesn't look sorry at all. Goku wonders why the kid is even talking to him, he looks so indifferent. He really, really has to stop seeing Hakkai here.

"You have a name?" Goku asks suddenly. If he has a name for the boy he can just think of him as that.

"Yeah," the boy replies shortly, and for just a moment he looks impish, amused. Yeah, no kidding he has a name. Then he seems to come to some decision. He bows slightly. "Kubota. I feel like I should know yours for some reason. You want to tell me why that is?"

Goku blinks, and his gut twists all over again. He barely even catches the name. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Kubota can't recognize his name because if he does, if he does- no. Goku doesn't want to think about the implications. He opens his mouth, then shuts it. Shakes his head and turns on his heels.

This time he's the one running, far and fast as he can, even if he'll be kicking himself for it tomorrow. Kubota doesn't follow him, but then Goku never expected him to.